𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑

most eventful first day back

"Dark is the night,
Dead is the moon.
I will not kneel."

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

don't forgive for pain.

•

MEREDITH FELT HORRIBLY about the entire situation with Lupin. And thoroughly unnerved. Her brain worked on autopilot as Dumbledore droned on and on about the various rules and regulations for the year. As per legend, the last Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was gone and there was a new person-Professor Crowley. She was a tall thin woman with a slim figure and a pair of large yellow eyes. She looked almost like McGonagall in the aura and Meredith got the impression she was going to be strict. Lupin, on the other hand, was chatting two tables across from her. Sirius Peter and James had been more than accepting of his lycanthropy and this unnerved and angered her.

She carried around his secret like a burning talisman on his chest. It didn't benefit her in any way at all and she, just like all Slytherins, didn't do anything for free. She'd held him indebted and was ready to exact her price in the right moment. But that isn't what unnerved her. James had been accepting of a werewolf and wasn't even remotely accepting of Meredith's strecromancy. The irony was startling. She scoffed.

Opposite to her, Lucius was smirking at the younger students who had just gotten sorted to Slytherin, including Regulus. Sirius Black hadn't looked this way to acknowledge or clap for his brother and he had continued with his life like he didn't know his sibling at all. The feast appeared, grand as always, but Meredith thoroughly missed her mother's cooking. Narcissa was talking about her trip to Greece and occasionally, Nott butted in to correct her facts about the pantheon and architecture. Avery, Lucius and Andromeda looked ready to cause more mayhem but with Lucius's gleaming batch, he also had the appearance of a very serious man who was nothing but a beacon of rules and morals. Meredith knew it was the opposite.

After the Dinner, the students filed up and Lucius and Bellatrix, that year's prefects, rounded up all the first years into a line to take them to the Common Room. Meredith quickly picked up the password and was internally satisfied that it wasn't something bigoted like Mudblood. The previous year, for an entire month, Mudblood had been the password and Meredith felt herself getting dirty the more times she said it. She joined quickly with Severus and Alakay and walked down the stairs towards the dungeons.

"Chins up," said a commanding voice behind Meredith. Coming from the other side of the long Slytherin table, Bellatrix led a group of new Slytherins, who followed her like soldiers, giggling at each other as they kept their heads up.

Lucius trailed behind them, making sure no one strayed from the group. He grinned at the trio as they passed by them.

"Chins up?" repeated Alakay, quite amused. Meredith noticed how some of the kids stared at her, one halting on her steps and being dragged by another.

"House values, Al," said Lucius, giving him a light shove. "Too bad Lestrange didn't teach you all that."

The green and silver of the Common Room welcomed her with open arms. The entire time on the train, she felt out of place with the Gryffindors and she finally believed she was a Slytherin. All that honesty, impulsiveness and loudness wasn't her. She wasn't that at all and clearly belonged here. After bidding her farewell to the boys, she made her way to the girl's dormitories. To her surprise, it was just her and Narcissa there that year.

"Just us?" Meredith asked as she eyed the entire room, large enough for five. Instead of five beds, however, there were two on two sides of the large room. A large furnace was in the middle like an arbitrary partition where Narcissa had already hung up her robes to make them crisp and warm for the next day. Forest gree drapes hung around the beds for privacy and outside the window, fishes swam by. It was large enough to do laps around the room.